Paul Krugman argues that France’s refusal to confront its pension finances leaves it uniquely exposed, with a 2025 budget deficit of 5.1 percent of GDP and debt at 115.5 percent of GDP amid average growth of only about 1.4 percent since 2023.

An aging population and stalled efforts to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 have crowded out spending on education and other services, fueling protests by more than 500,000 people and around 1,800 arrests.

Because France uses the euro and cannot print its own currency, and because Macron’s centrists lack a parliamentary majority, political paralysis is raising borrowing costs and deterring investment ahead of the 2027 election.

Paul Krugman, the Nobel-winning economist, posed a blunt question on Substack on October 8 in a piece titled “What’s the Matter With France?” His answer was equally blunt: among all the countries wrestling with troubled finances, France stands apart because it keeps refusing to face the hard numbers of its pension system. Today, that refusal has spilled out of parliamentary chambers and onto the streets, where, as The Indian Express reports, more than 5 lakh citizens have marched in protest over the past month.

Think of a household that earns a fixed salary but spends a little more than that every single month, year after year, with no wedding or hospital emergency to explain it. Slowly, the family’s loans pile up, and a growing slice of each pay packet goes just to........

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